Loan Modification

The Dumbest Floridian Award Nominee ? Alex Sanchez

By Chip Parker, Jacksonville Consumer Attorney

Author’s note – Although not publicized, I am absolutely convinced there is a race in the State of Florida to prove who is the dumbest Floridian.  Given recent actions by some bankers, lawyers and public servants, my guess is that the prize for first place must be pretty awesome.  This series will expose these recent acts of stupidity, and then I’ll open the floor for voting. If you feel that a particular Floridian deserves consideration, please send your suggestion to parker@jaxlawcenter.com.

Let?s take a look at today’s nominee:

Florida Bankers Association President Alex Sanchez is proposing legislation to Florida lawmakers that would make it much easier for banks to take homes away from Floridians by doing away with that pesky due process in foreclosure cases.  The association wants Florida?s legislators to make this state a non-judicial foreclosure state, which allows banks to take homes without filing a foreclosure complaint and without allowing the homeowner an opportunity to contest the banks? right to foreclose.  In its effort to obfuscate the truth, the FBA has named the bill . . . and I am not making this up . . . The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act.

From the banks perspective, this bill makes perfectly good sense.  Mortgage servicers have virtually no way of proving they own 98% of the residential home mortgages being foreclosed upon in Florida and the rest of the country because these greedy bankers bundled their mortgage portfolios and sold them, often before the closing of the loan, into securitized trusts (REMICS) on Wall Street with no regard for the investor or borrower.

As a Florida foreclosure defense attorney with over 500 actively defended foreclosure cases, I believe the banks have ?thrown in the towel? in the cases I?m defending.  I cannot recall the last time the plaintiff in a foreclosure case came to a court hearing with an intelligent argument that resulted in a ruling against the homeowner.  Since the plaintiffs rely on fraud in almost every foreclosure case, good defense lawyers are always frequency-tuned to find the lies, and now that Circuit Court judges have been exposed to the stench of foreclosure mill pleadings, more judges are looking at each foreclosure with more skepticism.

So, what is the only way the FBA can defeat contested foreclosures?  Legislatively delete the homeowner?s ability to fight for their home.  Make no mistake, a non-judicial foreclosure state is thisclose to a police state.  Just ask California, with its tent cities filled with displaced homeowners who were never given an opportunity to fight the banks.

Related posts:

1. What is a judge?s role in a foreclosure case?
2. Banks Want Your House But Not Your Problems
3. Retroactive Mortgage Assignments Not Effective In Massachusetts

Full post as published by Mortgage Law Network on January 31, 2010 (boomark / email).